Vol. 497 No. 5
198 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Finance if tax relief has been extended to cover one year full-time courses in private colleges or one year part-time courses which lead to a National Council for Vocational Awards certificate in view of the fact that these courses are now eligible for maintenance grant and this tax relief was designed to parallel courses which would be grant aided if conducted full-time in publicly funded colleges. [25805/98]
As the Deputy will be aware there are a number of tax reliefs for the payment of third level fees. Following the introduction of free fees for full-time under-graduate students in publicly funded colleges, the Finance Act, 1995 — now section 474 of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997 — provided tax relief for fees of full-time under-graduate students attending private third level colleges provided the course is of at least two years duration. The Minister for Education and Science approves the colleges and courses.
The Finance Act, 1996 — now section 475 of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997 — provided for tax relief for tuition fees of part-time under-graduate students attending approved courses of not less than two years duration in private or publicly funded third level colleges. Courses which are normally not less than two years duration but which, because of exemptions granted to the student following the conferring of a related certificate or diploma, may be completed in less than two years are also eligible for this relief. Again the Minister for Education and Science approves the colleges and the courses.
The Finance Act, 1997 — now section 476 of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997 — provided tax relief for fees paid by students pursuing a course of study or training, other than a post-graduate course, provided the course is confined to certain aspects of information technology and certain foreign languages. The courses must be of less than two years duration and result in the awarding of a certificate of competence. Both course providers and courses are approved by FÁS. Accordingly, one year courses are not eligible for tax relief under sections 474 or 475 but may be eligible under section 476 if they comply with the general conditions of the section and have been approved by FÁS.
199 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Finance the numbers who applied for tax relief under the scheme of tax relief for language and information technology courses. [25806/98]
I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the latest relevant information available is in respect of the number of claims allowed for tax relief to PAYE taxpayers on all qualifying fees paid for third level tuition fees, which would include sections 474, 475 and 476 of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997, for the income tax year 1997-98. The total number of claims allowable for that year in respect of such fees is currently estimated to be of the order of 1,600. Separate statistics for language and information technology courses could not be obtained without undertaking inquiries which could be carried out only at a disproportionate cost.
